Sales management is the art of selling. Sales Manager

Any business should be profitable for the owner, this is expressed in a continuous cash flow. Provide its sales, they are the basis of any business, its engine. Sales - this is a kind of locomotive, pulling along all the other cars. The size of the material benefits from the activity entirely depends on how masterfully the owner has learned to manage, understand and control this locomotive.

What is sales management ?

The concept of "sales management" includes a whole range of various activities aimed at obtaining the organization's maximum turnover. Sales management is the competent planning of each step, the formation of a sales department , the hiring of highly qualified specialists, the organization of workflow and the control of trade transactions. How well each component is organized will determine the overall success rate of the company as a whole.

Sales Management Principles

The key elements of sales management are the following:

1. Market orientation. The rules are always dictated by the consumer, this is manifested in his behavior and needs, essentially exactly what attracts his attention. All decisions regarding sales, one way or another, are influenced by the buyer.
2. Adequate flexibility. A sales management system is such a “mechanism” that must constantly monitor ongoing changes in the market and, based on this, think over productive measures and adapt to the real situation.
3. Prioritization Sales details must be constantly monitored and priority areas identified that show the highest results.
4. Risks Leaders of organizations and trade managers should be able to prevent and anticipate possible risks.
5. Marketing - sales management. One of the main principles, since without a good marketing support a successful process of selling goods and services is almost impossible.
6. Professional retraining. Sales managers need to be systematically sent to specialized courses in order to increase knowledge and acquire new skills. This also applies to the heads of the sales department.
7. Responsibility for the actions taken. Employees interacting with consumers should take care of their own reputation, since only trust from customers can make a company successful.

Effective Sales Management

How to understand the science of effective sales management, how to implement a sales plan, and not sit out waiting for customers? To do this, follow the following rules:

1. Good to know and understand the sales process.
2. Systematize and analyze the information received.
3. Build a competent sales system.
4. Learn how to effectively manage sales.

Consider each item in more detail.

Understanding the Sales Process

At this step, it is important to analyze the following business indicators:

1. Market size and share in it occupied by you.
2. Your effective product matrix, that is, an understanding of which particular product brings maximum profit.
3. Advertising.
4. Employee motivation.
5. The effectiveness of employees.
6. The smoothness of business processes within the organization.

These are the main points that you need to study at the initial stage, since you can only successfully manage what is very familiar.

Systematization and analysis of information received

In the second step, it is necessary to group and analyze the data obtained in the first stage. It is better to do this in a special program or, in extreme cases, using Excel, through tables and graphs you can see changes in dynamics. After such an analysis, it will become clearer which areas are more promising for your business, respectively, it will be possible to optimize work and business processes, as well as avoid unnecessary expenses.

Such an analysis is recommended to be performed regularly. Only in this case will it become possible to quickly respond to any changes and make timely adjustments.

Building a sales system

A systematic approach to sales management is the consideration of the company in the form of a single mechanism, consisting of parts interconnected between themselves and the outside world.

The sales system must be transparent (for all players), controlled (each participant must understand the result of this or that action) and interchangeable (the organization’s activity cannot be based on the personal qualities of an employee).

The sales process is most often based on three components:

1. Attracting new customers.
2. First deals.
3. Maintenance and work with regular customers.

Best of all, when each stage is controlled by different people - this will help increase productivity. For each of the components of sales, it is recommended to develop instructions and reports, they will help employees understand what is required of them and to what extent.

Sales management

These skills are important in any field. Effective work on managing sales in real estate or any other field allows you to determine what place the organization occupies in the market, as well as mitigate the impact of the crisis. This block consists of several points:

1. Planning. Forget a phrase like “Sell the more, the better!”. It is not right! The main sales management tool is planning. To get good results, it is necessary to give the organization’s activities orderliness and meaningfulness. Only with regular preparation of sales plans, reporting and analysis of the information received in the dynamics will there be progress.
2. Training. It is necessary to pay great attention to the work of sales managers and contribute to improving their professional level. One of the training options is mentoring and exchange of experience, for example, as a discussion and analysis of the most difficult cases once a week. This applies not only to specialists, but also to the management team.
3. Maintaining relationships with regular customers. Design a system that promotes loyalty with regular customers. These reliable long-term relationships will enable the organization to plan its activities for the long term.
4. Ability to determine the "target customer." Do not forget that there is a category of people with whom the company is not profitable to work with. A “right” customer is a person whose needs are not fully satisfied, but the organization has the opportunity to fix it and make a profit.
5. Control of sales channels. Build a customer base, do not rely on one large customer. Such cooperation is most often accompanied by a constant delay in payment, large discounts and fear of loss. Do not stand on one leg, there should be several large customers.
6. Concretization. The head of the sales department should give employees a detailed sales plan, and not just the task of selling goods for the specified amount. Distribution can be done by specific customers, regions, names and other criteria.

Not so long ago, such a service as trust sales management appeared on the market. The process consists of concluding an agreement with a specific organization, developing a strategy and putting it into operation. Therefore, if the head does not cope, then you can take the help of professionals.

Sales management strategy

Without a well-thought-out strategy for the sales department’s work, it’s almost impossible to manage and control sales in trade. In practice, not all managers correctly understand the specifics of the activities of this department and confuse it with the functionality of the customer service department. Of course, employees in the sales sector are looking for new customers and maintain relationships with existing customers, but their main task is to conclude contracts, that is, to make sales.

In order to have as many deals as possible, the sales manager must devote at least 80% of his time to calls to potential customers and meet with them. But, unfortunately, the organizational structure of most sales departments is hardly good. Most often, the following scheme occurs - the head is the head who exercises control of the employees and sets out plans, and only a few people are subordinate to him in the areas of the “field” manager and the employee who takes orders.

In such a situation, “salespeople” are engaged in everything at the same time (consulting, advertising, reporting, conducting transactions and solving other problems), but only in the main activity.

Of course, planning and analysis of activities is very important for productive work, but in no case can you replace work with potential customers with paperwork.

For more effective work of the sales department, it is recommended to organize it as follows:

1. Two main groups of managers who will engage in active sales and work with regular customers and report to their superiors.
2. The department manager interacting with these bosses.
3. Manager for the acceptance of orders and document management, which also reports to the manager.

In addition, there should be several more structures working with the sales department - the finance department, logistics, support services, advertisers and marketers.

With this arrangement, sales staff will be able to fully devote themselves to finding new customers and entering into transactions, rather than resolving related issues. This distribution of responsibilities contributes to more efficient operations and the formation of positive sales dynamics.

Sales Specialist: How to Manage Sales Effectively

It is sometimes very difficult to understand what exactly needs to be changed in order to improve practical results. But there are several actions, the implementation of which will help the leader in managing retail sales and organizing the normal work of employees:

1. The study of the art of sales and their management. Knowledge will help manage any sales, regardless of the direction of activity. It is necessary to use different sources of useful information, this will help to keep abreast of new sales techniques, useful technologies, concepts for meeting the right people, and more. But for the result to be, knowledge must not only be obtained, but put into practice with maximum benefit.

2. Customer knowledge. You need to know as much information as possible about the area of ​​activity in which you work, as well as understand the needs and desires of potential customers and customers.

• For example, if an employee is engaged in cold calls, then he should know the names, positions of potential customers and other nuances. When interacting with existing customers, you need to know almost everything about them.
• The sales management process will not bring results if the head does not know what his department and competitors are selling. Solve complex issues with customers and give advice to those who doubt it is possible only when you know the product thoroughly, and what issues it solves. The same goes for the team.
• Procurement and sales management is a very difficult matter, so a specialist must know in advance not only what the client needs today, but also what he wants tomorrow.

3. Using the right tools. Owning only special tools will not do the poor job of a sales manager professional, but will be able to turn an unremarkable department where good specialists work into an excellent team of “sales people”. These tools include:

• Good software (CRM) that suits the organization.
• Analytical and statistical counters that record the behavior of visitors on the official resource on the Internet.
• Managed automatic telephone exchange (PBX) with a huge number of useful features. This will make communication with customers and employees better.

4. Setting tasks and a system of encouraging subordinates. For the sales department, a special system of measured indicators and motivation should be developed. And you will always have measuring instruments, if you use the right tools. This will help you find out what is best for the organization and set the appropriate tasks.

Quite often, sales managers ignore the fact that every organization should strive to ensure that employees try to improve their activities in order to increase the effectiveness of the system, and not to modernize the company. To do this, you need to do appropriate planning.

According to the results of a recent experiment, it was found that personal non-material incentives for employees work much more efficiently, since monetary incentives very quickly cease to be associated with productive activities among subordinates.

5. Regular communication with each other. Every day after completing several current tasks, arrange brief meetings in the department to discuss further plans, form a general idea of ​​the work and obtain evidence that all the recommendations for sales management in the enterprise work as they should.

Communication is the key to creating a motivated team, setting goals aimed at achieving collective results. It’s not worth turning this process into unnecessary correspondence, discussing the task by telephone or meeting in the office much faster than waiting for an answer by e-mail.

Automation as a factor in the formation of an effective sales management system in an enterprise

The inevitable condition of the modern world is automation. Today, sales management includes complex and multiple processes with a huge amount of information, detailed calculations, comparative analysis and data exchange. To ensure efficiency, clarity and maximum safety of information, enterprises are introducing CRM-systems. These are computer programs that allow you to automate strategies for working with clients: increase sales, save customer relationship data for further analysis, optimize marketing and more. The presence of a CRM system opens up the following possibilities:

1. Lead a customer base according to a single standard.
2. Evaluate the quality indicator of the department at any convenient time.
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of work on requests and incoming calls.
4. Analyze weaknesses, draw up development strategies.

The automation of the sales management process has not only positive aspects, when introducing it into the work, some problems may arise:

1. Inadequate staff training.
2. Poor staff training on system capabilities.
3. Lack of coordination between departments and inconsistencies in setting tasks.

In order for the return on the introduction of automated systems to be high, it is necessary to clearly define the functional responsibilities for each employee. A responsible person should be appointed for each project, who will control all parties, assess risks, analyze and smooth out “sharp corners”.

Conclusion

No matter how strange it may sound, but all of the above tips on managing purchases and sales have a flip side, for example, you can immerse yourself in the study of theory to the detriment of practice, use non-working tools and more. Try to adhere to the golden mean, be attentive to trifles, objectively evaluate your own activities and the work of subordinates. Only with daily work can significant progress be made in business and keep it up to standard.